American Parkour

The Leave No Trace Initiative was started as a way to encourage communities and individuals to show respect for their training environments and as a way to give back to their community. It also serves to show the world that we're not just dumb teenagers jumping off of stuff - we're actually serious about what we do.

Since it started, there has been at least one coordinated Leave No Trace Day, and then various other communities have held events throughout the year.

I'd like to show the world, in a single, consolidated place, what we're doing and how well we're doing it. If your community has held, or is holding, a Leave No Trace cleanup, post here once it's done with a write up, and pictures, and bags of trash picked up. At the bottom of this post we'll keep track of how many events have been held and how many bags of trash have been picked up. I think it'll be easy to see this number grow VERY rapidly. It'll be something that we can not only be proud of, but something that we can show the world!

Please use my post below as a template (if you don't have the write up linked somewhere... email it to me! zac@americanparkour.com. I'd love it if we could post every single write up on APK's front page, so email it to me and I'll get it up there!), and try to keep discussion at a minimum. And remember, we're trying to catch up, so if you hosted one last year, post it up anyway!

Leave No Trace events: 17
Bags of Trash: 105

Community: Rochester Parkour (http://www.rochesterparkour.com)
City: Rochester, New York
Date: Saturday, December 6th, 2008
Location: Manhattan Square Park
Write up: http://rochesterparkour.com/post/63626106/leavenotracewriteup
Attendees: 35
Bags of Trash: 21

Community: SF Parkour (http://www.sfparkour.com/) (SFPK)
City: San Francisco
Date: Sunday, December 21st, 2008
Location: Ocean Beach
Write up: http://www.sfparkour.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1959 - done in conjunction with the Surfrider Foundation.
Attendees: 7
Bags of Trash: 8

Community: Virginia Tech Parkour
City: Blacksburg VA
Date: April 30th 2008
Location: Around Campus and Town
Write Up: (sort of) http://www.parkour.org.vt.edu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19&Itemid=31
Attendees: 11
Bags of Trash: 5

Community: Washington Parkour (http://washingtonparkour.com)
City: Seattle WA
Date: April 26th 2008
Location: Gasworks Park
Write Up: -photos (http://flickr.com/photos/undaunted/sets/72157604790987992/)- -PNWPA page (http://pnwpa.com/projects/leave-no-trace/)-
Attendees: 10+
Bags of Trash: 12

And whenever I go to a jam at gasworks I just bring a bag or two with me to grab the glass and occasional barb wire lying around :/ Leave no Trace is a big part of the PNWPA, if anyone wants to use/modify our article (http://pnwpa.com/projects/leave-no-trace/) feel free, it's CC licensed (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/) for that.
 

Please keep posts in this thread on topic (posts about specific Leave No Trace events.) and keep other discussion in another thread.

Thanks!

Ok so it finally happened. It was just me and my friend (Blank), took about one and a half hours, and 2 bags of those lawn care bags that are made out of paper, the deep ones for grass clippings and such. The fact that most of the little scraps of paper just went right in between the teeth of the rakes means that we had to use our hands for the mostly the entire park. I plan on keeping this going, just cleaning up more and more local areas.


Community: NWIPK (Northwest Indiana)
City: Calumet City, Illinois
Date: Sunday, May 03, 2009.
Location: Memorial Park
Write up: http://www.americanparkour.com/content/view/3894/373/
Attendees: 2
Bags of Trash: 2

Community Primal Fitness (http://www.primal-fitness.com) and DC Metro Parkour (http://www.dcmetroparkour.info/)
City: Washington DC
Date: Sunday April 12th
Location - about a 6 block radius around Primal
Attendees: 12ish
Bags of trash 6ish (at least)

thanks to Jessica Roberts of Primal for being the main instigator and thanks to everyone who came!

Community:HIPK (http://hawaiipk.com) Maui
Dates: May 11, 19, 21
Location: Kihei
Attendees: 1

"UnNatural Method" video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYrO1jpfrpQ) May 11

Bags of trash: 2 bags, uncounted boxes, a fridge, an oven, a dishwasher, a rusty metal shed, a truck bumper, a sink, kitchen cabinets, lumber, and assorted garbage.

[Thanks for the t-shirt, M2!]

Think big. Don't just pick up one bottle if there's a pile on the other side of the fence.

Community: Primal Fitness (http://www.primal-fitness.com) and DC Metro Parkour (http://www.dcmetroparkour.info)
City: Great Falls, Virginia
Date: Saturday, June 6th
Location - Great Falls, Virginia
Attendees: 30
Bags of trash: 20

National Parkour Day!

Community: Aero
City: Chicago, IL
Date: Saturday, June 6th
Location - UIC, Chicago
Attendees: 38
Bags of trash: 7

National Parkour Day!

Community: APK / Primal Fitness
Date: June 8, 2009
Location: Washington DC - Skatepark at 11th and Q
Attendees: 1 - Hellen Campos
Bags of trash: 1

"Every Day is a Leave No Trace Day"

Community: Me  :)
City: Redding, CA
Date: Saturday, June 6th
Location - Peppertree lane
Attendees: 1
Bags of trash: 1

National Parkour Day!

I thought Leon would've posted this, but I just noticed that he didn't!

Community: Parkour Virginia
City: Blacksburg, Virginia
Date: April 28th, 2009
Attendees: 15-20-ish
Bags of trash: 3
-- This was our last statewide jam.

I've been meaning to post up here but my internet access is sporadic right now

Community: LPK
City: Louisville, KY
Date: Saturday, June 6th (National PK Day)
Location - Falls of the Ohio in Jeffersonville, IN
Attendees: 7
Bags of trash: 7

We also hauled a bunch of tires, scrap metal, and assorted large junk out of there. The terrain is very steep and rocky with lots of driftwood so this was an excellent workout to boot.  :D

just kinda a solo thing
i picked up 2 bags of trash at my local park where i train, figured id pitch in if im gonna be training there all the time
Ringoes NJ
Minebrook park
Sunday July 12

Community: EriePK (http://www.erieparkour.com)
City: Erie, Pennsylvania
Date: Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Location: Grover Cleveland School
Write Up: Here (http://www.erieparkour.com/?p=32)
Attendees: 4
Bags of Trash: 1

Community: WA^t_lPK
City: Douglasville, GA
Date: Saturday, August 29th
Location - Deer Lick Park
Attendees: 4
Bags of trash: 1

It was more or less a leave the place better than when we arrived sort of thing...  But for the Douglasville Jam, a birthday party had just cleared out and there was trash everywhere...  So we picked it all up and then had the event and then cleaned up some more...  It really impressed the security so I hope to randomly do it again some time!

-Kyle(Rage)

Community: Washington Parkour
City: Seattle, Washington
Date: Saturday, August 29th
Location: Gasworks Park
Attendees: 60
Bags of Trash: 6

For the Seattle National Jam we had everyone who got there early run around and pick up trash around Gasworks to make it nicer for everyone else that day. There wasn't too much, but we got everything we could find.

Community: New Hampshire Parkour
City: Somersowrth, New Hampshire
Date: Two weeks
Location: Gyms in my area
Attendees: 3
Bottles and Cans recycled: around 200

Community: Washington Parkour
City: Seattle, Washington
Date: Saturday, September 26th
Location: Gasworks Park
Attendees: ~12ish
Bags O' Trash: ~2 big ones.
This was for the Global Jam, we all got there a little early and spent some time scooping up nasties before we played. We recycled all of the cans, glass bottles, and paper we could.   

Awesome, everyone! :D

Community: Milton High School Parkour Club
City: Milton, WI
Date: Friday, October 9, 2009
Location: Downtown Milton
Attendees: about 12-15
Bags of Trash: about 3 kitchen-sized ones

We followed the Homecoming Parade and picked up all the litter, streamers, discarded candy, wrappers, parade float decorations, and other celebratory detritus from the parade. We also carried signs that said "Parkour: Leave No Trace" and stuff. My principal, the town police, and my club kids LOVED it! Best part: a little kid watching the parade came up to one of my club kids and asked, wide-eyed, "What did you do to get in trouble?" Hah!  ;D

I was thinking the same thing. Pretty much everytime i go out to train i try to keep the areas where i train clean whether it was caused by me or not.